This invention relates to an artificial surface active lure. In particular, the invention relates to an artificial surface active lure for catching fish and, in a preferred embodiment, to an artificial surface active lure containing fish attractants and stimulants.
As the objective of fishermen has remained constant over time, the methods of accomplishing that objective have changed. The advent of the development of a soft plastic lure made from a combination of polyvinyl chloride resin, plasticizer, hydrocarbon extenders, and stabilizers has resulted in a veritable explosion of innovation as reflected in the numerous patents that have issued for the utilization of this soft plastic as a lure. In particular, the innovation has centered around methods of making the soft plastic lure more attractive to fish. In this regard, innovation has focused on how to make a plastic lure more "tasty" to fish. An example of such a lure additive patent is disclosed in Larew, U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,179, which adds salt to the liquid plastisol so that once formed and cooled, the lure body has a salty taste. When the Larew lure is submerged in water, the lure does not exude salt, and therefore retains its taste indefinitely. Similarly, Riley, U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,703, discloses blending freeze dried food and fish oil with plastic and a phosphorescent to form a plastic lure which glows and provides an odor to attract fish. In the Sibley, et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,376, an artificial fish lure is created out of a polymer that is hygroscopic. The polymer is mixed with fish attractants as the lure is being formed. As water is absorbed by the lure, Sibley suggests that the fish attractant is released into the water.
Other inventors have approached the problem of introducing fish attractant to the water by means of soft plastic lures in other ways. One coats the lure with a lacquer, then applies absorbent material to the lacquer, and then applies scent to the absorbent material which is presumably absorbed by the absorbent material and then released into the water (Keenan, U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,363); one creates a central fluid reservoir with a number of lateral reservoirs extending therefrom so that when a fish bites the lure, the suggested result is that scent is extruded from the central reservoir through the lateral reservoirs into the fish's mouth (Paoletta, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,781); another attaches a separate pouch in front of the lure for containing bait fish or scented attractants so that as the lure is drawn through the water, the scented material washes over the lure (Hollinger, U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,579); others use cavities to contain scented material (Rinker, U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,606); or fibrous material attached to the lure (Walker, U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,609); or a hollow interior chamber designed to contain fish attractant through which water is forced as the lure is retrieved, forcing the lure attractant out the rear of the lure leaving a scent trail in the water (Gruelle, U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,235).
Applicant is also aware of numerous other methods that have been designed to utilize the soft plastic lure known in the art in conjunction with various fish attractants and stimulants. In one way or another, they mirror the prior art discussed above in that the soft plastic lure formula remains virtually unchanged except for the addition of various fish attractants and stimulants. While to the human olfactory system these lures have a "scent", it is now commonly accepted by researchers that fish do not "smell" as much as they taste the food they eat. In the final analysis, then, all the prior art to date has achieved is the permanent encasing of various selected "fish attractants" in plastic. That is, the soft plastic lures known in the art are not naturally surface active and do not react with water.
A drawback to the artificial soft plastic lures known in the art, therefore, is the fact that they last, essentially, forever. A further drawback is that encasing fish attractants in impervious plastic prevents the desired objective of releasing the attractant into the water, unless by pure happenstance a piece of the fish attractant happens to meet the water-lure interface. Thus, there is a need in the art for providing an artificial, commercially-producible, soft plastic lure which operates effectively to release fish attractants and stimulants into the water. It, therefore, is an object of this invention to provide an artificial surface active lure, with all the characteristics of a soft plastic lure, that reacts with water in a relatively short period of time. Additionally, it is a further object of this invention to provide an artificial surface active lure which, in the presence of water, becomes surface active and releases entrained fish attractants and stimulants to the water.